Historic African Nova Scotian community gets close to $200K for wildfire prep
Provincial government funds education, tree clearing, and risk assessments in Upper Hammonds Plains. The Nova Scotia government is providing $199,000 to a historic African Nova Scotian community to bolster wildfire prevention and education. The grant, funded through the province’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund, goes to the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust. The money will […]
Support for Reducing Wildfire Risk in Upper Hammonds Plains
The residents of one of Nova Scotia’s oldest African Nova Scotian communities, their 85 historic homes, church and other community buildings will be better protected from wildfire risk with support from the Province for the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust. Upper Hammonds Plains was settled in 1815 by Black refugees of the War of […]
Rooftops Canada in Atlantic Canada
From June 8–18, Rooftops Canada welcomed Thulani Nkosi, a Senior Attorney from the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) of South Africa to Atlantic Canada and as part of the Women Spaces project. During this visit we exchanged ideas and explored solutions to one of the most pressing challenges facing communities around the world: ensuring everyone has […]
New report ranks Halifax communities with worst emergency access
A new report highlights the most vulnerable communities in the Halifax region for emergency access, and how they can be improved through new roads or crisis planning. In a staff report to council Tuesday, a consulting team led by HDR Corporation examined more than 360 communities across the Halifax Regional Municipality, ranking the top 100 worst ones […]
Hammonds Plains development inching closer to reality
People in Hammonds Plains were not welcoming of new development because of how it was being planned in their community without their input. Curtis Whiley, founder and CEO of the Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust, told Nova Scotia Today with Dan Ahlstrand, that members of the community were looking for a way to combat the issue of […]
A community takes housing into its own hands in Upper Hammonds Plains
You can hear the passion in Curtis Whiley’s voice when he talks about communal stewardship, the very idea at the heart of the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust’s 136-unit development. Article content It also happens to be Canada’s largest Black-led housing project of its kind. “I spent a lot of the early years explaining […]
Land trust unites community, secures future for African Nova Scotians
Sixth-generation African Nova Scotian Curtis Whiley is helping to write a new chapter for the Upper Hammonds Plains Community. “It is a wild story.” Curtis Whiley has had a busy few years. From administering co-operative housing agreements and delivering home repair programs at the Government of Nova Scotia’s Department of Growth and Development, to creating […]
Land trust in N.S. secures $61.2M to build housing for Black Canadians
The federal government announced $61.2 million for the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust on Saturday. The funding will be used to build 136 co-op housing units in the historic African Nova Scotian community. All the units will be built at 195 Equestrian Lane with the first block of housing due to open next fall, […]
How Black-led community land trusts are connecting Black communities with lost land across Canada
With their collective ownership model, community land trusts have the opportunity to work with provincial and federal governments to provide affordable housing and community hubs to marginalized communities. At six weeks old, in 1995, Shekara Grant was the youngest attendee at the Weymouth Falls community’s biannual reunion. Thirty years later, Grant is the founder of […]
Reviving heritage and affordable housing: The UHPCLT community land trust project
To combat further erosion of the affordable housing stock, Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust UHPCLT, has set out to demonstrate how to create an affordable housing-focused, community-led community land trust. This CLT will serve the community and lead a transformative movement guided by community voices, values, and aspirations. The Nova Scotia Community Housing Growth Fund, as […]